What to Do when You Choke on a Fishbone

A child, they said:  a child 
             the only one who could dislodge the errant 
fishbone now choking your throat, by stealing 
             another bone from the plate to plant
unseen in your hair— As though the dark
             strands were a field or an ocean
limpid with promise, until the sharp,
             careless insinuation of a barb. Magic
or metaphor, metonymy or simple
             diversion, it wound the world more
tightly around you, as though invisible
              threads bound the body
you thought was free to choose between
              accident or fate to a universe
ticking with ancient mines.